


Heroes

by viole



Category: Penny Dreadful (TV)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, M/M, Season/Series 01, the usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 14:45:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10743831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viole/pseuds/viole
Summary: Set during the first season. oh god why haven't I seen this show before I'm in love <3





	Heroes

“It doesn’t seem to be fractured. Only a contusion.”  


Ethan looks upwards with an appreciating smile.  


“This is hardly the time to be impressed with Miss Ives,” Victor scoffs.  


“It’s not her who did this.” Ethan replies and immediately winces in pain. Victor searches his bag for an ointment in a small metal box.  


“Victor, this isn't necessary...”  


“Lay still.”  


Ethan can barely lift his trouser leg over the swollen calf. He squeezes his eyes at the sensation of the cold balm. Victor touches him as softly as he can, feeling the firmness of the muscles under his fingers. A magnificent limb of firm skin and vigorous structure, he finds, certainly only in professional, clinical admiration. He will have to remember it, for his studies. It is unlikely he will see or handle it from this perspective again.  


He wraps the leg in bandages, asks whether it is too tight. Ethan shakes his head. While still his cheery self, the agitation that usually dictates his movements is gone for the present.  


“You should feel better shortly.”  


“Thank you, doctor.”  


Victor begins packing his instruments into the bag when he catches Ethan looking at him.  


“You seem tired, Dr. F..”  


“I believe that is the case for all of us.”  


“Come on, sit with me. You can rest your eyes for a bit. You need this as much as I do.”  


Victor sits down on the sofa, but his eyes do not stay closed. He looks upwards, beyond the ceiling, head on top of the backrest, legs and one arm stretched out, listening for sounds from Vanessa's room. Ethan leans back in much the same manner as him. Contrasting to the doctor, he seems to be listening to the silence.  


He has grown to like the room where he spends most of the time with Chandler, waiting in silence for their cue to intervene whenever required. It is entirely more pleasant than his gloomy and decrepid apartment. Victor does not seek even the simplest luxuries, but it elates his spirit coming here, being able to visit a clean and tidy house, so different from the bleak chamber of his laboratory or the cadaverous insides of the slaughterhouse.  


Ethan has made himself at home quickly as well. He even has a habit of bringing Victor tea on afternoons such as these. Though it is done in benevolent intention, it annoys Sembene, who prefers others not to interfere with his work. Contrary to Victor, Ethan seems disposed to please the people he spends his time with as much as possible.  


Out of reflex, Ethan raises his good leg to have it rest against the other knee, as he often does when he feels at ease. A flinch and a curse follow, and it makes Victor smirk.  


“Don’t touch it.”  


“I’m not good at this.” Ethan protests, fumbling with his shirt collar and revealing a strip of his collarbone. “Being injured.”  


“Shouldn’t there be a scar on your chest?” Victor asks. “I stitched that four days ago.”  


Ethan smiles and tugs at his collar. “You want to see it that badly, doctor?” 

Victor lowers his hand. He had not realized he had been reaching out. 

“No need to worry, you patched me up well. As you always do.”  


It hasn’t gone unnoticed that Ethan takes the majority of injuries during their attempts to restrain Vanessa. It’s only sensible of him; Victor needs his hands undamaged, each member of their small group relies on this. Still there is a tension rising inside him when Ethan throws himself amidst the dangers to take a blow for him; he senses a trembling that does not derive from fear alone and an impulse that goes a little beyond momentary gratitude.  


This morning's incident had been no different. He remembers the pressure of Ethan’s hands on his stomach, pulling him aside and holding him a little longer than necessary.  


“And you in return got me out of harm’s way, as you always do,” Victor replies. “That’s why you were hurt.”  


“All in a day’s work.” Ethan says, grinning. “You’re not ashamed of being rescued by me, are you?”  


“I should be.” Victor says. “Then I think of Vanessa and how mortifying it must be for her.”  


Ethan bats his eyes once, rendered speechless. Victor himself thinks it strange how he can suddenly give an honest answer to his friend inviting him to the ordinary, mutual banter.  


“A lady like her,” Victor continues, “to be seen in such conditions and to need the most crucial help, be it from friends or not, must possess an impossible amount of self-strength to endure an exposure of this kind. I cannot say I understand her condition entirely, but it must be an illness whose outbreak she wanted to prevent at all costs. It is quite easy to declare in words that I myself would choose death over such humiliation. In the light of the current events however, I find that I cannot afford my own conceit.”  


“Doc,” Ethan says.  


“I wish for her to be alive and healthy, and to regain her former stance,” Victor states. “Therefore I must render myself humble for the moment. So yes, I consent to you playing the hero you must play to protect all of us.”  


Ethan laughs. It is a quiet and affectionate chuckle.  


“Well, doctor,” he answers. “I allow you to claim back your conceit after this is over. I’ve come to like it.”  


“Missing it already?”  


A second of silence passes, in which they both smile.  


Ethan moves his head closer. At first Victor does not understand what he intends to do, but he is not going to withdraw when he sees no reason for it.  


It is easy to let him advance. Their kiss is quiet, almost a resting on the other’s lips. Ethan could still be teasing him, but Victor will not allow himself to behave melodramatically because of such a trivial act.  


He admits he had awaited a more eager approach under such circumstances; not tranquility and sweetness. Not Ethan pushing his nose gently into his skin and taking slow breaths, almost as slow as the breaths Victor takes after a calming shot of morphine.  


He lets it happen, after all. Kisses cannot be dangerous, especially with a man…  


Oh.  


His breath is warmed up from the other’s heat, the moisture on his lips makes him very curious about the taste of Ethan’s mouth. It’s exilarating and yet comforting, his pulse is rising, and yet he is unwilling to flee or even move much.  


Ethan comes back for more, lifts his hand to pull their faces closer and parts his mouth in favor of Victor's curiosity. His fingers trail on Victor’s shoulder, then down his arm. The rolled up sleeves have uncovered several punctures on the inner side of the elbow, dotted sparsely on the upper forearm and growing in numbers towards the center. Ethan does not hesitate, he continues caressing, like wanting to smooth out the marks. After all, they are initials that Victor, as everyone else, seeks some means of relief, of pleasure, of silence.  


Victor shakes the sleeve off for cover, so Ethan settles for taking his hand. Better as it may seem for his need of secrecy, he becomes light-headed in return with the clasp of their interlaced fingers and the way their palms fit into each other.  


This up close Victor discovers how delightful Ethan’s face is, the smiling eyes, the dimples in his bristly cheeks: Looking at him gives Victor a strange feeling of warmth, softly pounding up to his throat, and even wandering down to his abdomen. He still cannot see the fuss about romance, but he certainly will seize the opportunity to explore with someone he can trust.  


He has looked down on Ethan from the start: though the man is nimble-witted and not without intellect, surely he can be no worthy opponent for Victor's mind. The distance in their natures had driven them apart at the beginning, Ethan seemed a person so strange in his foreign attire, his opulent, smug manner; he was beyond Victor’s reach, beyond all the goals he ever thought of reaching. He doesn’t seem so foreign now. His shoulders, his large chest, they’re rising and falling with breath because of what he is doing to Victor.  


Victor feels odd, almost playful. It astonishes him how tame Ethan is right now, next to him, not just because of the pain in his leg. In a way, Ethan is at his mercy, and it makes him powerful.  


They break apart, lips and hands, when they hear Sembene enter the house, reminding them of their duties. No one enters the room, thankfully. They stand up in any case, unnecessarily patting their clothes and straightening their hair.  


They stand at some distance, not quite sure how to continue moving about each other. Victor turns away, so at heast he seems to look in another direction, to avert suspicion in case someone decides to come in. Soon he hears soft steps behind his back.  


“I’ll take the next shift,” Ethan says and kisses Victor’s neck.  


Then he walks out of the room. Almost nothing has changed. Ethan is still the smug, simple American who is surprisingly attached to his friends. 

But Victor knows he might be alone with him again soon. Kiss him again. Maybe do a little more than that.

**Author's Note:**

> Victorian vocabulary requires a lot of research ^^ Also very sorry for leaving Vanessa in her room all alone xD but this is important. The boys need to comfort each other so they can help her later <3 It’s good for everyone.


End file.
